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| Source // PlayStation |
Underlying a great many video games is the Havok physics engine, without which everything would fall a bit flat. With it, though, characters and objects fall over, bounce off each other, break apart, explode, trigger chain reactions of somewhat predictable interactions with yet more objects... Can you make a game around that?
Of course you can. Throwing a ragdoll into an explosive crate or through a cinder block wall is the first thing you do to see what the Havok physics engine can offer your game, and it only takes one person to wonder what would happen if you made a giant slingshot to propel characters through an explosive environment ready to fall apart at a moments notice.
Here comes the Pain.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Fun Times
Initially released straight onto the PlayStation Network, I wouldn't play the PlayStation 3's Pain until a year or two later when it saw a physical release that crammed a bunch of DLC and other new content onto the disc.
To see that disc is to get an idea of the target audience for Pain. Two ridiculously proportioned cartoon women are front and centre, one in a tight fighting nurse's uniform, the other wearing a hint of a Santa costume. But they don't really clue you into what Pain actually is as a game, and sadly, neither do any of these screenshots, so I'm going to have to set the scene.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Pick a level, from the city to a school, or an amusement park. Pick a character, be it generic teenager, scantily clad woman, comedy character, Daxter from Jak & Daxter, David Hasselhoff, whoever. Pick a target for you to launch said character through said environment towards, and hit the slingshot release to get flying.
That's basically it. Pull back on the sticks to set angle and power, press X to launch. While in the air, other than screaming, your character can stick out an arm in any of the four face directions to try and grab onto something, and the left stick can be used to try and fine-tune your aim, but essentially, once you've done the flying bit, you sit back and watch the pain.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
As soon as you hit something, you're effectively a spectator, save for the ability to subtly nudge your ragdoll in a given direction, provided you have enough 'Ooch' in the tank. The high score starts to tick up with the amount of carnage you cause, and special awards are dished out for doing things within the environment, like knocking down a sign or colliding into an innocent bystander, or landing in a chimney or getting run over by a car.
No impact is fatal, despite the possibility of you being awarded the 'Decapitation' bonus, for example, and the idea is just to demolish everything in front of you, however you see fit.
A top-down view will give you an idea of what the level looks like, and they're much denser than you might realise. You'll see something around a corner that you couldn't see from your launchpad, and will have to work out a way to bounce in that direction, or maybe use an explosive to launch yourself over an obstacle.
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| Source // PlayStation |
I can't remember how other levels and characters are unlocked, presumably through high scores and the like, but I do know from skimming through the menu's for the first time playing it in what may well be a decade is that it's not just about mindless destruction.
It mostly is, but you can go bowling too, where you are the bowling ball, obviously. Challenges either dictated to you or of your own making will keep you playing and exploring the levels, trying out the different characters, and just having a silly time.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
Frustrations
But how much of a silly time will you stick around for? For the completionists out there, Pain may well keep you hooked for a while. You might launch yourself in one direction again and again and find different things to aim for each time, all of them seemingly rewarding you with another specific score bonus for falling into a hole or knocking something over or altering the level, giving you yet another idea of what to do on your next attempt.
Those attempts come around quickly too. You don't even have to stick around to post a score if you don't like lying in the road for 15 seconds watching nothing happen. Just hit R1 to reset and you're right back into the action.
The level doesn't reset, so the damage ramps up, making it both easier to reach new areas through the air, but harder to Ooch your way across the floor. Hunting down every little joke, every reward, every high score will keep you playing Pain - if you want that.
Final Word
I don't know how long I played Pain for originally, but I know it was much, much longer than I played Pain this time out. The truth is that once you've got the gist that it can be funny to see a ragdoll hurtle through a construction site and get blown into the sky before being run over upon landing, you don't really need to go to all the effort to try and make it happen again.
It was funny, and it'll be funny in your mind for a little bit, and then you'll want to do something else.
The controls are dead simple and the fun will be found largely from what you find most interesting to do. As soon as I saw the elderly lady standing in front of the subway tunnel I knew I had to launch over there, knock her through to the subway, and potentially get us both run over by a train. That I happened to reach down and grab her by the head on the way down, and that the subway was not only full of explosives but had an air vent that spat you out back onto the street was definitely one of the better launches I had during my brief spell with Pain.
But I wasn't in the mood to sit down and find them all. I wasn't going to be checking off a list of objectives or trying to set a new high score. I wasn't interested. There was a time where I was, definitely, but not anymore.
Pain is the kind of game that someone has to make to get it out of their system before working with the Havok engine in a better game. Yet those simple games that don't require much thought and don't have a convoluted story to follow often make for great afternoons of laughs.
You'll know whether you'll find Pain entertaining or not based on its premise. You probably won't need to play it to check whether you were right, but to be fair, it does play rather well. There's more going on than you think. It's not just a silly ragdoll simulator. It's just that there comes a time when it does feel like that. When it's time to move on.
Fun Facts
Replays of your best efforts could be edited in-game and uploaded to YouTube, well before the PlayStation 4 would make that a breeze for every game it played. Everyone used ShareFactory at least once, right?
Pain, developed by Idol Minds, first released in 2007.
Version played: PlayStation 3, 2009.